Donald Trump took several swings Tuesday morning at Sen. Ted
Cruz's father, Rafael Cruz — even linking him to President John
F. Kennedy's assassin.

Speaking by telephone with "Fox and Friends" on Tuesday, Trump
took issue with Cruz's father's recent suggestion to an audience
of Christian voters in Indiana that a presidency by Trump, the
frontrunner for the Republican nomination, "could be the
destruction of America."

"I think it's a disgrace that he's allowed to do it," Trump said.
"I think that it's a disgrace that he's allowed to say it."

He continued: "It's disgraceful that his father can go out there
and do that, and so many people are angry."

Trump also pushed back against the elder Cruz's pitch to
evangelical voters in which he pointed out high-profile
endorsements from figures like Liberty University president Jerry
Falwell Jr.

During Tuesday's interview, Trump also sought to undermine Rafael
Cruz's legitimacy by parroting a
dubious National Enquirer story. The story claimed Rafael
Cruz was photographed in the early 1960s handing out pro-Fidel
Castro leaflets with President John F. Kennedy's assassin, Lee
Harvey Oswald.

The Enquirer has established a reputation for sensational stories
that occasionally make their way into the political
mainstream, such as when it broke the story of the John Edwards
affair. The publication has endorsed Trump in this election cycle
while publishing a series of
suspect stories critical of the Texas senator, including one
that Cruz accused of being fomented by Trump's "henchmen."

The Cruz campaign has called the National Enquirer story
involving Rafael Cruz "garbage."

Trump's comments came the day of the Indiana primary, in which he
is looking to score a
knockout blow against Cruz. Though Cruz has campaigned hard
in the Hoosier State, most recent polls show Trump with a
significant lead.